Nicholas Brathwaite was sworn in as prime minister after an indecisive national election. Brathwaite's National Democratic Congress party wound up one seat short of a parliamentary majority, but Governor General Paul Scoon waived requirements that it have a majority to form a government.

The government has commuted the death sentences of 14 people condemned for killing Prime Minister Maurice Bishop in the 1983 coup ended by the U.S.-led invasion. Prime Minister Nicholas Brathwaite went on live government television to say his government is "committed to reconciliation and Grenadians should now regard this as the closing of one chapter and the opening of another." The terms were commuted to life in prison.

Grenada's government suspended Parliament amid opposition threats to bring Prime Minister Herbert Blaize down with a no-confidence vote. Blaize, who lost leadership of his New National Party, has been under intense pressure over what critics call an increasingly authoritarian style. The suspension means Blaize can govern without any parliamentary opposition until as late as February, a month before general elections are due.

Nicholas Brathwaite was sworn in as prime minister after an indecisive national election. Brathwaite's National Democratic Congress party wound up one seat short of a parliamentary majority, but Governor General Paul Scoon waived requirements that it have a majority to form a government.

The last step toward putting Grenada's recent bloody past to rest is being played out with an agonizing deliberation that some see as a metaphor for the gentle island nation's halting return to democracy. In a sweltering courtroom where the local Lions Club used to meet, 13 men and one woman who were once the Marxist elite here are appealing their sentences to be hanged for the executions of 11 comrades, including their longtime revolutionary leader, Prime Minister Maurice Bishop.

Prime Minister Herbert Blaize was ousted as leader of Grenada's ruling New National Party during a party convention vote and replaced by his longtime critic, Keith Mitchell, the minister of communications and works. The election of Mitchell means he will be the prime minister of the Caribbean island nation if the centrist party wins in elections due by December. Mitchell, 43, has regularly criticized Blaize for making major decisions without consulting his Cabinet.

A high-ranking police official went on a shooting rampage at police headquarters here Wednesday morning, killing Grenada's acting commissioner and a U.S. diplomat from Southern California and wounding two high-ranking officers before he was killed by police. State Department officials in Washington said the slain diplomat, John Angelo Butler, 33, was killed while trying to subdue the gunman, identified as Grafton Bascombe. Butler was the political officer at the U.S. Embassy in St. George's, the capital of this Caribbean island nation.

The government has commuted the death sentences of 14 people condemned for killing Prime Minister Maurice Bishop in the 1983 coup ended by the U.S.-led invasion. Prime Minister Nicholas Brathwaite went on live government television to say his government is "committed to reconciliation and Grenadians should now regard this as the closing of one chapter and the opening of another." The terms were commuted to life in prison.

Grenada's government suspended Parliament amid opposition threats to bring Prime Minister Herbert Blaize down with a no-confidence vote. Blaize, who lost leadership of his New National Party, has been under intense pressure over what critics call an increasingly authoritarian style. The suspension means Blaize can govern without any parliamentary opposition until as late as February, a month before general elections are due.

A high-ranking police official went on a shooting rampage at police headquarters here Wednesday morning, killing Grenada's acting commissioner and a U.S. diplomat from Southern California and wounding two high-ranking officers before he was killed by police. State Department officials in Washington said the slain diplomat, John Angelo Butler, 33, was killed while trying to subdue the gunman, identified as Grafton Bascombe. Butler was the political officer at the U.S. Embassy in St. George's, the capital of this Caribbean island nation.

Prime Minister Herbert Blaize was ousted as leader of Grenada's ruling New National Party during a party convention vote and replaced by his longtime critic, Keith Mitchell, the minister of communications and works. The election of Mitchell means he will be the prime minister of the Caribbean island nation if the centrist party wins in elections due by December. Mitchell, 43, has regularly criticized Blaize for making major decisions without consulting his Cabinet.

The last step toward putting Grenada's recent bloody past to rest is being played out with an agonizing deliberation that some see as a metaphor for the gentle island nation's halting return to democracy. In a sweltering courtroom where the local Lions Club used to meet, 13 men and one woman who were once the Marxist elite here are appealing their sentences to be hanged for the executions of 11 comrades, including their longtime revolutionary leader, Prime Minister Maurice Bishop.